This article is part of our series on Facebook’s Charitable Giving Tools, which has been in existence since 2015 and has led to $5 billion in funds raised for nonprofits.
When Facebook launched peer-to-peer fundraisers in its platform, no one knew if they would be a success or a flop. It has been an incredible success: as of 2022, $5 billion has been raised for nonprofits and that number continues to grow.
While there are any number of reasons for people to start a fundraising campaign to support your nonprofit, there are four kinds that make sense to encourage supporters to start for you.
Thanks to the company GivePanel we have the stats (specifically conversion rates) to look at 4 kinds of Facebook Fundraising campaigns. This data shows us how effective these campaigns are at creating long-term subscribers and donors for your nonprofit.
In case you’re wondering why converting fundraisers and followers on Facebook into email subscribers is so important, it helps to know that according to the company NextAfter’s fundraising research, email is the #1 channel for fundraising compared to all other channels (on- or offline!).
In fact, across all industries (both for- and nonprofit), email is the marketing channel with the highest ROI – for every $1 invested, the average organization gets a $40 return!
Let’s learn about these 4 kinds of fundraising campaigns!
1. Birthday Campaigns
When Charitable Giving Tools started, birthday campaigns were the main type of fundraisers that nonprofits received from their supporters. For a lot of nonprofits, this is still the case, but strategic organizations are finding ways to move toward event-related campaigns.
The difference between birthday and event-based campaigns is that organizations cannot rely on birthday campaigns to drive consistent, stable revenue, nor can organizations encourage supporters to run more than one of these per year! The inherent limits and lack of control create unpredictability and and a need for organizations to use other types of campaigns to get the most out of Facebook.
Conversion data from GivePanel: nonprofits can turn 12% – 41% of fundraisers into long-term subscribers.
2. Event-Based (Challenge) Campaigns
This article is not going to go into the details of event-based or challenge campaigns (that will be the topic for a future article!), but the main idea is that nonprofits can bring their supporters into communities (Facebook groups), and give these supporters a common challenge to share.
While creating a community and giving them a challenge, the side effect is that this audience quickly responds to your encouragement to start fundraising campaigns on your behalf as they complete the challenge.
Conversion data from GivePanel: event-based campaigns raise on average twice as much as birthday campaigns, 20% – 67% of fundraisers turn into long-term subscribers, and 100% of the community/Facebook group members into subscribers!
3. Tribute and In-Memory Campaigns
Through groups, posts, and ads, nonprofits can encourage people to start fundraising campaigns around remembering and honoring the people in their lives (due to passing away, accomplishments, etc.).
Conversion data from GivePanel: nonprofits have been turning 78% – 97% of these types of fundraisers into long-term subscribers. Furthermore, the company saw an average increase of funds raised by this type of campaign from $400 USD in 2019 to $735 in 2020 (84%!).
4. Donate Button Posts
Donate button posts are organic posts done by a nonprofit with a donate button call to action. The beauty of this type of fundraising on Facebook is that they are not time-based. This means they can be an evergreen sources of new donors, especially if your followers comment or share these posts with others.
Conversion data from GivePanel: the most successful nonprofits bring in 10% of their total donations through Facebook.
Regardless of the type of campaign that your fundraisers start on your behalf, here are some further encouraging stats from GivePanel about the effectiveness and future of the platform as a whole. Hopefully they encourage you to take advantage of the opportunity you have through Facebook for peer-to-peer fundraising.
GivePanel Key Findings for 2021 Facebook Fundraising
- In 2021, peer-to-peer fundraising was down 40%, while Facebook fundraising was up 70%
- The average amount raised by each fundraiser on Facebook has increased 63%
- When an organization thanks the person who started a Facebook fundraiser, that fundraiser goes on to raise an average of 23% more
- It’s OK (and even expected) for organizations to ignore the donors and to instead put their efforts into building a relationship with those people who initiate the fundraisers
- What’s next for peer-to-peer fundraising on social media? Instagram!
- Ultimately, because of how effective it is becoming, social fundraising is beginning to disrupt “traditional” online fundraising
If you’d like to know more about Facebook Fundraising, and if it would be a good fit for your organization, contact us! We’ll learn more about your organization and let you know if you’re well-positioned to succeed with this type of campaign.
